Blackhawks stay hot, rally for 5-3 win over Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Two of the NHL’s stingiest teams when it comes to allowing goals this season took the ice Tuesday night at HP Pavilion.

Naturally, an onslaught of scoring immediately took place.

When the dust settled, the Blackhawks had slugged their way to a 5-3 victory over the Sharks in a Western Conference showdown.

The teams combined for six goals in the opening period — including four within a span of 1 minute, 29 seconds — after entering the game with the Sharks tied for No. 1 in the league in goals-against (1.62 per game) and the Hawks third (2.00).

Patrick Kane had two goals, Marcus Kruger a goal and an assist and Brandon Saad and Andrew Shaw also scored while Corey Crawford did enough in goal to help the Hawks remain unbeaten in regulation and improve to 8-0-2 after rallying from an early two-goal deficit.

“It shows the excitement we have in the room coming back in a game like that,” said Kane, who scored the game-winner. “We’ve had a lot of games on the road, a long road trip and we’re still focused on hockey. It’s a good start. Hopefully we can continue it. I think we can even play better; that’s the exciting part.”

The Hawks also upped their mark on their current season-high, six-game trip to 2-0-2 and overall road mark to 6-0-2. Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook each added two assists for the Hawks as they got the better of former teammate Antti Niemi in goal for the Sharks.

Joe Pavelski, Tommy Wingels and Michal Handzus scored, but San Jose fell for the second consecutive night.

“It shows a lot of character in our team to come back like that, especially against the team we played against,” said Saad, who got the Hawks on the board with his first-career NHL goal. “It was huge for us. Our team is playing really well. We’re gelling really well together. Everything is clicking.”

San Jose started the scoring 2:53 into the game when Pavelski knocked a rebound of a Marc-Edouard Vlasic shot out of mid-air past Crawford. Wingels made it 2-0 at 5:18 when the Evanston native rifled a shot from the left circle that appeared to deflect off defenseman Nick Leddy and sail past Crawford.

Then the goal insanity began. First, Saad scored when he took a pass from Seabrook and one-timed a shot from near the right post past Niemi. It took 39 seconds before Handzus put the Sharks up 3-1 with a shot from the left circle that beat Crawford to the stick side.

The crowd of 17,562 was still buzzing when Shaw received a pass from Bryan Bickell and scored from the slot :08 later. The Hawks weren’t done as another 42 seconds elapsed before Kruger scooped up a turnover by Sharks defenseman Justin Braun in front of Niemi and found the back of the net to tie it at 3-3.

“It wasn’t the start we wanted,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They got the crowd going. Getting a response quickly was important. I liked the way the guys battled back, stuck together and I thought we really improved our team game as it progressed.”

The second period was fairly eventful as well, highlighted by a huge open-ice hit by the Sharks’ Andrew Desjardins on the Hawks’ Jamal Mayers. Desjardins leveled Mayers and was immediately confronted by Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith. The two dropped the gloves before order eventually was restored. Desjardins was assessed a fighting major and a match penalty for hitting Mayers in the head. Keith amassed 19 minutes in penalties while defending his teammate.

“We’re trying to get that out of our game,” Mayers said of Desjardins’ hit. “It’s unfortunate that happened but we got a power play out of it and most importantly, we won the game.”

Mayers believed the hit was illegal, although the league reportedly rescinded the match penalty.

“I don’t believe the puck was there yet,” Mayers said. “(Desjardins) made a decision in my opinion to go for a piece of a guy’s body and it happened to be my head. I think he could have made a clean hit if he just chose to but he didn’t do that.”

Just more than three minutes later, the Hawks took the lead after an outstanding defensive play by Toews. The captain stripped Sharks blue liner Douglas Murray of the puck, found an open Kane and hit him with a pass. Kane delivered into the open net as Niemi scrambled to get back in position.

“It was a pretty crazy first period,” Kane said. “Both teams beared down after that and it was one goal that decided it.”